thought it would be cool if we shared experiences while lobstering in the keys (or any where for that matter) most will probably have to due with the man in grey but lets hear it. i've seen quite a lot of cool stuff while diving for bugs. but last year had some thing happen that i never expected! prior to our trip we allways go over to my friends house, hop in his pool to test our gear and to practice all kinds of crazy situations. if some thing ever goes wrong on the bottom i dont want it to be the first time it happened i would like to try to go through it in a controlled environment first. Stuff like your regulator gets ripped out of your mouth and how to find it, breath with a runaway regulator stuck wide open, untangleing your self by feel...... well i think it paid off. we were in about 30' on a patch reef off of big pine key and we were getting our limit in short time, i found a pyrimid shape rock structure that rose about 15' off the bottom and had a large opening on one side. the inside was hollow and full of large mangrove snapper, i couldnt resist, i charged my spear gun and fired hitting a nice 20" snapper. With the snapper on the shaft the tip was stuck in the rocks. as i tried to get my spear loose i saw an octopus shoot right past my leg and it settled on the bottom just out side the structure. after freeing the spear and getting every thing situated i went to check out the octopus. it was real calm and i was getting a little closer than i felt comfortable with to get some photos of it. i have zero experience with octopus except i know they make good grouper bait and they have a beak that i dont want to get bit by. in a fraction of a second it shot off the rock, hit me in the face, and took off trying to take my mask with it. no prob i have practiced taking the mask off under water and clearing it a million times but what i never practiced was is having my mask streatched a foot off my face and snapping back. it felt like i just got punched in the nose. i got my mask back on with eyes shut and tried to clear it, i got the water out but had a bigger problem. i had a bloody nose from hell and even though i cleared the mask it was starting to fill up again quick with blood. finally i just took the mask off pinched my nose and slowly made my way to the surface with eyes closed. might have been a bigger problem if i was deeper and had to make safety stops along the way up. trust your gut and dont trust a puss! Puss=1 diver=0
